Getting Great Support

Created by Chris Purser
Mar 28, 2023
2 min read

I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn they aren't alone in the frustration of the ping-pong of support requests, and the time it takes to get to the bottom of issues. The average email or chat exchange with a support technician can take hours or days longer than necessary.

You've heard the phrase "God helps those who help themselves," right? No matter your belief in things this motto holds true most of the time, especially when asking for assistance.

We believe we can cut investment time by half if those participating followed a few basic guidelines.

  • Be explicit. Misunderstandings and misinterpretations cause the lion's share of delays to getting support. 

  • Share everything you have at hand.  Provide URLs you have in front of you, like the webpage you're having trouble on, rather than asking the recipient to search for it.

  • Prevent the other party from searching if you can. (see above)

  • Never be ok with asking someone else to do something for you that you can save time doing yourself.

  • Always consider the overall time consumed. That goes both ways. If it will be faster for someone else to do something for you, than for you to do it yourself, because you don't have the knowledge or experience to do it quickly, ask for help. If you burden someone else to help you do something and it takes them longer than it would you, you've violated this simple courtesy. These mutual respect gestures go a long way to getting front row attention when you need something.

You pay for a service, yes. And you get the service you pay for. Most likely, you receive more value than it costs you. If you didn't, you'd cancel, right?

That said, what you don't pay for is some entitlement to waste someone's time chasing you for answers. It's a little crazy how many people think that they are paying for that right. Crazy. 

At DPS, rest assured that the customers that we attend to the most, are not (necessarily) those who pay us the most. They are those people, who treat our teams like people, who work for themselves as much as they ask us to work for them; who ask for what they need from us, not for what they simply want, and those who don't expect someone in a "service" role to be less deserving of consideration then they are, simply because they are 'the customer'.

We don't provide good service simply "because we're paid to."

We provide good service because we believe we are "of service to others" whether they pay us or not.

Those who respect that, regardless of how much they pay us, will always get the best support we can offer.

Sincerely,

Chris Purser, COO/CXO.